f a lad not long before in his employ, who laughed at the idea
of supernatural appearances, and was indeed afraid of nothing. "The young
scamp," said he, "though I don't know why I should call him so, for he
was as honest as he was bold,--appeared so thoroughly fearless, that it
sometimes looked like mere bravado (I am afraid he pronounced it
_brave-ardor_); and a companion who also lived with us resolved to put
his courage to the test. Accordingly, at dusk one evening, when Jack was
about to lead the horse to the pasture, he provided himself with a sheet,
and placed himself on one end of the crossbeam which rested on the rather
high posts of the gate. Jack came whistling along, leading the horse,
and, opening the gate, slipping off the halter, gave the animal a slap
with it; and as he shut the gate cocked up his eye at the elevated
figure. "And as for you, Mr. Devil," says he, "you may sit there just as
long as you please." A decent respect for the proprieties of his position
kept the scarecrow quiet until Jack was well on his way to the house
which was not far distant. Pretty soon the door was burst open, and, to
our alarm, some one tumbled in upon the floor in an agony of terror, as
we soon discovered, pale as a ghost and scarcely able to speak. As soon
as he recovered some degree of self-possession, he could barely stutter
out,--"When Jack got out of sight--I turned to get down--and there sat
another one, on the other post--looking just like me!"[11]

A great deal was thereupon said about the power of the imagination and
the effect it was likely to have upon one who had placed himself in such
an equivocal situation, and the terrors which, under its influence, might
naturally revert to him, who in an excited state of his own nerves had
endeavored to inflict such terrors upon another. Hereupon there was a
general call upon Aunt Judith, from the youngsters present, to tell us
something about reputed witches in her younger days,--a subject in regard
to which she was said to be able to make some remarkable statements,
though as yet we had never obtained from her any satisfactory information
about it. She seemed a little reluctant to indulge our curiosity.

"As to witches," said my uncle Richard, gravely, "I don't know. Whether
the denunciations of them in Holy Writ are intended to apply to any
actually supernatural power possessed by them, or only to the pretence of
it,--and both are mischievous in their effect on the pop